I’m continually looking for ways to juice my cash flow and to drop the levels of friction in my life. About a year ago, I started to notice the outlandish rates I was being charged for my mobile service here in the US. I had just added another line to my account and that was when I realized how much I was being charged to have the privilege of my voice/data/text service.
I was and arguably still am a Sprint Customer albeit indirectly.
I also found myself having hours and hours of conference calls as I work from home a few days a week. Well, I was crushing these calls with my mobile device as well. The good news or so I thought at the time was – hey I’ve got the unlimited everything plan from Sprint for two lines for about $170 per month. Well, I began questioning this bill and how the hell I was defaulting to paying $2000 (WTF?!?) per year for the privilege of unlimited voice/data/text…
So I set out to see where and how I could hack this bill.
I focused on my mobile service as a first step, and then branched into setting up a home phone that could be run over the internet as the traditional voice providers in my area are expensive.
Starting Out – I Spend How Much and Use How Much???
I began evaluating the data consumption needs that I had off of my primary device and on the secondary line. I found that I was using on average 7-10GB per month across both lines. I also questioned this volume, as it seemed a bit crazy that I was consuming this much – given the ubiquitous nature of wifi and the usage of a mobile hotspot that I also have through my employer.
As I began to ratchet back my data use I noticed the following:
- I didn’t always use wifi, even when I was at home.
- I love streaming video and music services, even for things that I really didn’t particularly need or want. Many times, these streams were social or pure entertainment things that typically distracted me from the task at hand.
- My secondary line was using 3-4 GB of data, nearly half of my total.
- I used my personal line for a ton of data and voice needs via my employer.
- I could have used my employer provided hotspot a lot more than I had up until this point of inspection – for work related activities – such as the numerous WebEx-es.
Next Steps – Data Consumption Reduction, Voice Service Changes
Based upon this review over the course of a couple of months – I figured that I could reduce my usage a bit, and perhaps not require the ‘all you can eat’ plan from Sprint. I knew for a fact that I could cut my data usage in half, just by being more mindful on the time waste that I was typically engaging in. I also knew that I could limit the data usage on the secondary line with a hard quota. Finally, if I set up a little bit of automation — I could readily connect to known wifi providers in locations that I frequented – such as my own damn home!
So I had cultivated a plan to carve my data down to 5 GB or less per month. I then turned my attention to my voice usage.
The focus on voice usage reduction landed me on a two headed strategy:
- Reduce the voice usage for those times when I’m working from home by getting a home phone of some sort – likely a non-Vonage or MagicJack services – given prior experiences that were really negative.
- Pursue an alternative wireless service or payment plan to directly drop what I’m paying per month – ideally maintaining Sprint as the provider as I liked their service.
Well on the home phone – I did some serious research on a voice over IP set of providers in the hopes that there was a firm out there that was much better than Magic Jack and cheaper than Vonage. I found AX Voice, and they have been just incredible after using them for 3 months now in a very intense way.
VOIP at Home
AX Voice was the winner for me due to the cheap price, strong reviews spanning multiple sources, simplicity of setup using a traditional phone handset, unlimited calling, and a very good depth of supported voice protocols. I found out later that they support numerous ‘soft phone’ apps that I can leverage on my mobile phone – although I’ve yet to take advantage of this capability.
I’ll dig into the exact config in an upcoming post.
Mobile Wireless
For my mobile wireless solution, I knew of possible resell and pay as you go options – although I was not as familiar with these as the typical ‘default’ options that AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile represent here in the US. Well after about 30 minutes of research while waiting at my favorite local and very authentic barber shop – I had identified a few options within the MVNO space.
Mobile Virtual Network Operators are effectively resellers of the same large mobile service providers, but they offer alternative consumption packages that may or may not meet your needs. They are effectively leveraging the EXACT same wireless provider networks – in my case Sprint – to deliver their service. The difference being that you as a consumer pay for what you consume. MVNO is a whole new world for many, and this also warrants an elaborated post down the line.
My thinking at the time was that I could reduce my monthly consumption to more reasonable levels when leveraging Wifi for my data and if I brought in a solid VOIP solution for when I work from home – I could save some substantial cash.
I landed upon Ting Mobile as they allowed me to bring over my Sprint-based device, and they also encouraged a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach – which also intrigued me given the newly released iPhones that hit in the Fall of 2017. I’m about three months into this journey as well. At this point, I’ve seen my bills dropping each month as I continue to work on reducing my ‘on network’ usage while consuming the EXACT same service. My target is to cut my bill in half while adding a third line at the same time. We’ll see how well this goes, and I’ll elaborate in a future article on Ting Mobile and my journey to unshackle myself from the default mindset afforded by the big carriers – along with a few hacks to get Sprint to actually release the hardware/phones if you originally purchased them via Sprint coupled with a contract. I have a lot to say on this topic. Had I known what I now know, I could have saved myself from being without a phone for about a week due to Sprint jamming me, and my lack of knowing how best to unshackle my phone from their clutches – even though I owned the device outright!
Future Opportunities For Voice and Data
My requirements are a bit unique and thus my future opportunities are similarly unique given my usage profile. I use voice all day everyday from my home office, sometimes with two lines going at the same time. It is critical. I also need a strong mobile solution that can play very nicely. I need the portability of the voice service and of the continuity of the outbound facade from which I’m calling as I could be calling from my mobile phone service, mobile-based apps, VOIP at home, or even my iPad or home computer via third party apps such as Skype. All need to play nicely and compliment each other regardless of my location as I also travel a good deal.
As such – I think there is a substantial amount of upside with AX Voice’s ability to support third party wifi-based app calling features – this could further reduce the need to spend on my mobile voice carrier via Ting.
Another opportunity is regarding incremental lines being added to my mobile voice/data service. I’ve recently added a third line to my voice service for minimal costs, as the voice line is not really being used heavily – however it does provide peace of mind to everyone in the family knowing that the person holding the phone can be reached at any time if need be.
There are some specifics on the home/VOIP and mobile configs that I’ll be getting into on a future post. For this post – here are the key takeaways:
- Stop it with the default mindset with your monthly bills.
- Home phone service is typically a ripoff, and many of the VOIP alternatives that are well known are either too expensive or just plain shit. I’ve found one that has held up very, very well over the past three months.
- Mobile Virtual Network Operators are a great way for many to cut their mobile phone bills while leveraging the EXACT same network provider.
More to come on this idea of mobile phone services, default mindsets, and getting control of your cash.
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